Ok we talk a lot about Kirk drift on here but there's Spock drift too. I was listening to this Trek podcast talking about Mark of Gideon and they said that this Spock line:
Spock: We must acknowledge once and for all that the purpose of diplomacy is to prolong a crisis.
was out of character? Except that it's not at all? Spock is always somewhat impatient with diplomacy. He frequently rolls his eyes and snips at officials (The Trouble with Tribbles and Devil in the Dark come to mind, but there's so many). He's especially so when Kirk is in danger (as he was at that moment). Maybe people are remembering Ambassador Spock from TNG but uhhh that version of Spock was trying to nurture an insurgent movement on Romulus. He was not in a boardroom somewhere eating donuts with Romulan High Command. Picard even calls him out on his "cowboy diplomacy."
It's like time has swapped Kirk and Spock's personalities in their approach to politics and diplomacy.